Knowledge source sync
Run a knowledge source's sync on demand, set its auto-sync schedule, and read the history of every run.
A knowledge source is copied into the workspace knowledge base ahead of time, not read live — so the assistant only sees what the last sync brought in. Syncing is how that copy is kept current: on demand with Sync now, or on a repeating auto-sync schedule. Every attempt is recorded as a run, and each run lists exactly which documents it created, updated, retired or held.
This page covers running and scheduling syncs and reading the results. Adding a source, its import policy, its reviewers and removing it are on the Knowledge sources page.
Prerequisites
- The manage knowledge sources workspace permission — owners and admins have it. Without it the page shows an access-denied notice.
- At least one knowledge source in the workspace.
- The source must still be reachable. A source whose site is down, or whose credentials have been revoked, records a failed run rather than silently going stale.
Read a source's sync state at a glance
Each card on Admin → Knowledge Sources ends with a sync footer: the outcome of the last run, the auto-sync schedule, the import policy, and a Sync now button.
The status line on the left tells you where the source stands:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not synced yet | The source has never completed a run. |
| Syncing… | A run is in progress right now. |
| Synced (date · document count) | The last run finished cleanly. |
| Partially synced | The run finished, but some documents failed. Hover for the reason — they are retried on the next run. |
| Sync failed | The whole run failed. Hover for the error. |
Sync now
Click Sync now on the card. The button changes to Syncing…, a Sync started confirmation appears, and the status line switches to Syncing… until the run finishes.
A source can only have one run at a time, so Sync now stays disabled while its run is in progress. If a scheduled run happened to start in the meantime, the platform tells you a sync is already running and offers a View run link to it instead of starting a second one.
Set the auto-sync schedule
Manual syncs are for when you know something changed. The schedule is what keeps a source current without anyone remembering to press a button.
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Click the pencil next to Auto-sync on the card. The dialog opens on the source's current schedule.
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Frequency offers the six cadences. Off: manual sync only means the source is never synced unless someone presses Sync now.
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The rest of the dialog follows the cadence you pick — Weekly adds a Day and a Time, Daily just a time, Monthly a day of the month. Times are offered on the quarter hour.
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Custom: every N hours replaces the clock with an Interval — every 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 or 12 hours. These are the gaps that divide the day evenly, so the run lands at the same clock times each day.
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Nothing is saved until you click Save — a half-changed schedule never reaches the server, and Cancel discards the draft. On success the card's Auto-sync row shows the new schedule.
Read the sync history
Open the source's … menu and choose Settings & sync history. Below the import-policy and reviewer settings, Sync history lists that source's runs, newest first.
Each row summarises one run:
- Status — Succeeded, Partial, Failed or Running. A warning triangle next to the badge carries the error message.
- Trigger — Scheduled, or Manual with the name of the person who pressed the button.
- Changes — a count per outcome, for example
3 createdor1 held. A run that found nothing new reads No changes. - Started and Duration.
The table shows the most recent runs; Load older runs appears underneath once a source has more history than one page.
This page also carries its own Sync now button, so you can start a run and watch it appear in the history without going back to the list.
Open a single run
Click any row to open that run. The summary repeats the outcome, trigger, start and finish times and duration, and — when the run failed — the error. Below it, File events names every document the run touched.
The Event badge says what happened to each file:
| Event | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Created | The document is new and was added to the knowledge base. |
| Updated | The document already existed and its content changed. |
| Held for approval | The source requires approval, so the document waits in the review queue. |
| Retired | The document is gone from the source, so it was withdrawn from the knowledge base. |
| Skipped (unsupported) | The file's type cannot be ingested. |
| Failed | The document could not be synced. The Detail column carries the reason. |
On a source set to Require approval, the run is where you see what it sent for review — each held document then turns up in the Review queue.
A run whose documents were all unchanged records no events at all. That is a normal, healthy result, not a failure — nothing at the source moved since last time.
Notes
- A sync compares content, not timestamps: a page that was re-published without changing produces no event and nothing for a reviewer to look at.
- Partial means the run finished but some documents failed. The failures are listed on the run, and the next run retries them — you do not have to do anything.
- Retiring a document withdraws it from the knowledge base, so the assistant stops answering from it. Deleting the source itself removes everything it synced; see Knowledge sources.
- Manual and scheduled runs do exactly the same work. The only difference is the Trigger column.